Is There Really Truth in the News?

INTRO/PROBLEMS

The window to the world can be covered by a newspaper,” this quote by polish writer Stanislaw Lec sums up the problem with the news media. It is the job of the news media to provide the public with news events happening around the world. Without these news reports, people would be oblivious to what is going on around them. Our lives rest in the media's hands, and they are fully aware of this. The news is a very competitive business, and because of this what gets reported is not necessarily what the story is. Since there are different journalists reporting on the same events, each newspaper and newscast has its own way and style of reporting. They also have different gate keeping processes that make them unique. They may do anything to get the story, no matter whose lives they destroy. Criticizing the news has become increasingly popular recently due to the fact that the media has shifted from a positive to a negative view in the public's eyes.

Since every newscast and newspaper is different, the stories that they broadcast to the public may be altered in one way or another. As the quote above illustrates, the news media do not always illustrate the world in the right perspective and can hinder the way people look at it. It seems as though it is the job of the news to report only on negative aspects of the world. Hardly ever does one see anything positive being reported. This throws everybody’s perception off about the world around them.

The media influence society’s opinions rather than having people form opinions themselves. Newspapers and newscasts use a process called agenda setting to keep the public thinking about certain issues while avoiding other issues that might be more important. Agenda setting is the process by which the news media do not necessarily tell us what to think, but tell us what to think about (Perse, 2001). The media focus on a few major news events and talk about them nonstop, until something new comes along and the old stories are forgotten about. A good example of this has to do with the events after the September 11th attacks. President Bush was ready instantly after the attacks to send troops to Afghanistan to fight the war on terrorism. After a few weeks of news coverage about the war on terrorism, our troops were all of a sudden being sent to Iraq because apparently they had weapons of mass destruction there. After the news about Iraq, Afghanistan was nothing but a memory.

According to a news article in USA Today, written by Dave Moniz (2002), there are still soldiers in Afghanistan, yet we never hear anything about them. This is the main job of the news media. They give us the topics to form our opinions about. If it is not in the news, then it is not supposed to be important to the people. Well if this is the case, then what about the people that have members of their families over in Afghanistan? Are they not important?

Another major problem with the news media is that different news groups report on the stories that are going to give them the best ratings, therefore all the news stations report on the same stories in order to try and out do the other. One major example of when news stories get altered or even possibly reported wrong is during a crisis. When a crisis is reported on, every news organization tries to get the news first, even if it means getting and reporting the wrong information. When this occurs, all gate keeping processes are eliminated and rumors are intertwined with the truth. All information passes through the gates, and nobody can tell if the information has been verified or not. Reports may be incomplete, inaccurate, and conflicting (Perse, 2001). A good example of this was the events of the war in Iraq, more specifically the Jessica Lynch hostage crisis.

Jessica Lynch was a soldier that was part of a team that was hijacked and kidnapped in Iraq. It was said that her team was ambushed while taking food and supplies to other troops. After a battle broke out, she had been taken hostage and half of her team had been tortured. A week and a half later a anonymous letter was delivered to the U.S. Army saying that Jessica Lynch was alive although badly injured. After she was saved, stories about her heroic return swept across the country. The only problem was that the story that the United States newspapers reported about was not the same stories that the rest of the world was reporting about.

According to the Los Angeles Times, when Jessica Lynch was found in the hospital she had bullet and stab wounds from her heroic battle when she was abducted. The story also stated that she let off a round of shots at the enemy, killing at least two of them. When doctors found her she was suffering from amnesia (Ellingwood, 2003).While these stories were being told in the United States, the rest of the world was learning a more realistic version of the story. According to a London newspaper, The Daily Mail, when Lynch was found there was no record of her suffering from bullet and stab wounds. It also turned out that she never fired a round of bullets at the enemy because her gun jammed. If she was suffering from amnesia, then how did anyone know about her story in the first place (Jones, 2003)? Many newspapers from other countries such as the Canadian based newspaper, The Vancouver Province (2003) agreed that this story was altered in order to provide the United States with a “hero” and shift public opinion back to supporting the war instead of protesting it.

The news media is a good source for altering a persons reality. Due to the fact that the news media concentrate mostly on negative events, people who are heavy viewers of the news might get an altered view of the world because they only see the negative side of it. People that tend to be lighter viewers of the news tend to have a more realistic outlook about the world (Dominick, 2002). A survey was conducted comparing light viewers to heavy viewers. The outcomes showed that heavy viewers were more fearful of walking home alone at night and believed that serious crimes were more frequent than usual. Adults who were heavy viewers also felt it was necessary to put extra locks on the doors and were more likely to purchase dogs (Dominick, 2002). These studies show that people become more scared of the world around them instead of informed about what is going on around them. If there were more of a balance of positive stories versus negative stories people would think the world is a much safer place.

Another problem with the media is that they will stoop to lows in order to get the story first, destroying peoples’ lives along the way if they had to. A good example of this is what has recently happened with the Kobe Bryant case. Reporters have run out of material, so now they are digging up background information about the victim. They are destroying the victim’s life, but at the same time have a great story. The media has been so eager to report about trials that are going on, that people who are participating in these trials might feel in danger and possibly even ruin the case. Some of these instances occur when the media conduct pre-trial interviews and speculate on the cases before they begin. According to Chief Justice Edward R. Becker (2004), having cameras in the courtroom can do irreparable damage to a citizen’s right to a fair and impartial trial. He also feels as though having cameras in the courtroom can intimidate litigates and jurors resulting in a negative effect on the trial at hand. A federal Judicial Study has also proven that people become more nervous around cameras then they normally would be (Becker, 2004).

A good example of the news media getting in the way of a major court case was the case that had to do with two men stealing millions from the Tyco Corporation. This was obviously a trial of great importance and received major attention from the media. During the trial, there was conflict with one of the jurors who apparently gave an “ok” sign to the defense. This sparked immediate conflict within the courtroom. Due to the involvement of the media, this problem did not stay within the courtroom. Two major newspapers leaked out the name of the juror before the trial had concluded. The juror ended up getting a threatening email, eventually leading to a mistrial (Kidder, 2004). Problems like these happen in many courtrooms across the nation due to the fact that the media want to report on everything that is going on in the courtroom.

Another problem with the media is that they might even ruin a case because of pre-trial publicity. News media often speculate about up and coming trials before they happen, and because of this it is hard to get a full jury when they know the details of the case (Brehm, 2002). Surveys also have been done in Social Psychology that illustrate that the more information people know about a case, the more likely they will find the defendant guilty. This is due to the fact that reporters get their information from the police and other sources. Potential jurors receive information that they might not receive in the courtroom and therefore would be biased during the trial (Brehm, 2002). A study was done by Social Psychologist Geoffrey Kramer (1990) in which he tested to see if people were really affected by pretrial information. Before he showed an armed robbery trial, he gave the participants pre-trial information. Some were incriminating facts and the others were neutral facts. Then they were told to choose the person's fate based on the video only. The results were that pre-trial information had an affect on the case. Judges have also created gag rules. These rules stop people that are involved in the trial such as the attorneys, witnesses, defendants, and the jury from giving away any information to the media.

The news media do not provide us with all the information that is happening in our society that is newsworthy. This is due to another major problem that is wrong with the mass media. They will never broadcast anything that is going to hurt their company. Since revenue comes into the news companies through advertising, news reporters will never broadcast any negative news about their sponsors because that would hurt their company too. According to former journalist Daniel G. Jennings (2002), from the Free Congress Foundation, the news media are a bunch of hypocrites. The news media are supposed to disregard Capitalism and profit, yet most media organizations are a part of huge for profit organizations that engage in fierce competition. Jennings also states that “media figures draw huge salaries and their news reporting often reflects the interests of the big corporations they work for rather than the public interest.” The news media might also hesitate to criticize and editorialize against powerful institutions because they are scared of retaliation. For example, the media rely heavily on government sources and might think twice before reporting news that would ruin that relationship (Perse, 2001). The job of the news media is to inform the public about what is going on around them, but there is another job of the news media that people do not know about. These big media organizations make all their money off advertisements. It is the job of these media organizations to sell their audience to advertisers. This is how they earn their profits (Dominick, 2002). Without these advertisements they would not be in business. Therefore a news organization would never broadcast negative news reports about one of their advertisers because it would be hurting them as well.